A Bit Like You And Me Radio

June 08, 2016

The Gentrys - Keep On Dancing (1965)

This band was formed in May 1963 by seven students at Treadwell High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Originally going by the name The Gents, the group had entered and placed in a number of band competitions throughout 1964. This led to the group getting a record deal from the local Youngstown Records in December of that same year and releasing their first single- a regional hit, titled “Sometimes”- in early 1965. Later in 1965, the group released their most successful song (heard below), which led to appearances on Shindig!, Hullaballo, Where the Action Is, and the 1967 movie It’s a Bikini World. The success of the song even led the band to tour and open for The Beach Boys and Sonny and Cher. Unfortunately, though, the group’s five follow-up singles were not well received, and the group disbanded in 1967. Notably, however, the band’s primary vocalist, Jimmy Hart, would go on to have a very successful career in the WWF (now WWE) throughout the 1980s and ‘90s.

Written by Allen Jones and Willie David Young, the song below was first recorded and released by a band known as The Avantis in 1963. The Gentrys’ cover of the song, released in 1965 and heard below, sold over a million copies and spent two weeks at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It should be noted that for this particular song, the lead vocals were performed by the band’s guitarist, Larry Raspberry.

Also, the finished song was initially one minute and thirty seconds long. But, feeling that it was too short to receive significant commercial airplay, producers took the first forty seconds of the song and duplicated them at the end of the track. As a result, the final version of the song has a false ending at the 1:30 mark, followed by the exact same intro being heard for the next forty seconds, until it fades out and the song officially ends.

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About this 60s Music Website

The radio is infamous for playing the same dozen chart-topping hits day after day. There is a plethora of great music from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s that never gets any air time. The purpose of A Bit Like You And Me is to share old, forgotten '60s music (as well as other old music) with all listeners, proving that there's more music from the past than the media would have you believe. Whether looking for new music or rediscovering forgotten music, A Bit Like You And Me is a great place to hear old songs.

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